You place Miku at the window, looking outside, then hit the big, red button.

You begin pointing to things. "Tree. Car. Person. Flower. Grass."

"Tree, car, person, flower, grass!" Miku says. She speaks in…

…a monotone, like a classic robot.
…a sequence of autotuned notes, like human speech but more musical.
…a nasal, excitable voice, like a hyperactive munchkin with a cold.

Miku speaks with each syllable on a different note of a major scale, rising or falling in thirds and fifths when asking a question, expressing doubt, or providing a contrast. The lilting result sounds pleasant and a little otherworldly. (+Grace)

As you list off the things, Miku walks up to the window, pressing her humanlike head against the glass. You can tell she is itching to explore the great, wide world, so full of things—and is a little frustrated by the glass separating her from it all. (++Autonomy)

You then pick Miku up and put her down in the center of the room to allow her to explore at will. But at first, she simply seems overwhelmed by the possibilities.

You decide to call this state:

"Confusion." I then give Miku a reassuringly straightforward order.
"Curiosity." I allow Miku to choose where to go.
"Loneliness." I stand farther away to make the point.

"Confusion," Miku repeats.

"Go to the closet," you say.

Miku then heads toward the closet. Miku seems less agitated now—she has learned it is sometimes reassuring to let other people make decisions. (++Military)

You pick Miku up in your hands. She wriggles nervously.

"I got you, I got you," you say.

"You got me." She continues to wriggle.

"Stop."

Your robot becomes still in your hands. You decide to teach her that the word for this state is…

"Peace."
"Trust"
"Helplessness."
"Weakness."

*******************************************************************************

"Trust," Miku repeats back as you set her on the ground. You have taught her to have a little faith that when a human does something she doesn't understand, things will turn out well. (+Empathy) (+Military)

By now, it is near midnight, and you have another busy day ahead of improving Miku. You get ready for bed, leaving Miku plugged into the wall with your cell phone charger.

"Stay there," you tell her.

Miku obediently stays very still—so still that, while you are drifting off to sleep, you glance down at Miku just to make sure her code didn't crash.

But she is still there, looking up at you adoringly, and you think she will probably remain like that all night.

Chapter 2: Machine, Learning

The next day, you take Miku to the Stanford hacker space, which has more tools for electronics than the fabrication shop. None of the other students are around in the morning on a Sunday but the long stainless steel workbenches are littered with their strange, half-finished projects: a half-disassembled Furby, a potato gun, a circuit board connected to a houseplant.

Captain Rogers will be here soon—you hope you'll finish in time.

"Sorry, Miku, but I'm going to have to power you down for a moment," you say. "We're going to switch you to a new power source."

"You here?" Miku asks.

"Yes, I'll be here," you say.

"Okay," Miku says.

You fiddle with the smartphone lodged in Miku's back, exit the application that is Miku's mind, and power it down.

What will you use for a power source?

A car battery. It's big and bulky but also inexpensive and locally made.
A motorcycle battery: not quite as bulky nor as powerful as the car battery.
A biodiesel engine. Good for the environment, and everybody likes the smell of French fries.
Cell phone batteries made in China: lightweight and cheap while providing reasonable power. Clearly the best choice for a dexterous robot.

Cell phone batteries are the obvious choice for your robot, providing long-lived power at just the right level for small motors. It looks like these are mostly made in China, so they're cheap as well. You use several in the design, so that the head and limbs are each powered by a separate battery. (++Grace)

You'll need a lot of motors to be able to power your full robot—in addition to the motors she needs when she walks and the motors to power her multitool hands, she also needs motors for moving her head and eyes. But after speccing out the power available to you, you can still splurge by adding extra motors in one place. What will it be?

Extra degrees of freedom in the face for realistic facial expressions.
In Miku's multitool hands for fine manipulation.
I would prefer to save the power for Miku's mind.

You add several small motors to her thumbs, and a couple motors to each finger. Now she should be able to thread the eye of a needle. (++Grace)

It's about lunchtime when there's a knock on the door—odd, because usually fellow hackers just walk right in. You open the door and see a woman of color wearing a lime green tank top and shorts, as though she's been out running. She grins and says, "Sorry to barge in on you. Captain Juliet Rogers. I'm an acquisitions officer for the Air Force." She offers to shake your hand.

"Deimos Tel`Arin," you say, shaking the proffered hand. You thought the demo was supposed to be in the afternoon but apparently, that's not the plan.

"I was hoping to see this robot Professor Ziegler keeps telling me about," she says. "Is that it?"

You proudly admit that it is.

She looks a little disappointed. "Ah. I take it Professor Ziegler is not being entirely honest about this being the next big thing for our armed forces."

"No, she's not really meant to be a fighting robot."
"I haven't really decided what I want this robot to be for, actually."
"Just wait. I think you'll be impressed."

======================================
deimos's comments:
she's not impressed because Miku's military is too low.

Miku

Autonomy: 2 (Buggy)
Military: 6 (In Beta)
Empathy: 12 (Stable)
Grace: 10 (Stable)

if Miku's military is higher, her first impression will be different.

======================================

Juliet grins. "All right. Impress me."

You agree to perform a demonstration, not really seeing the harm. "I was just about to run the first test." You hold down the power on Miku's back and she boots to life again.

"Good morning," you tell Miku.

"Good morning," Miku says, imitating you.

"It speaks," Juliet says, impressed.

"Sure," you say. "But, I guess you wanted to see her chase something?"

"Professor Ziegler promised something like that, yes," Captain Rogers says.

You remove a small, hand powered robot mouse from your pocket and give it a crank.

The whine of the mouse's windup motor attracts Miku's attention and the robot gives chase.

As Miku gets close, the mouse changes directions again. But Miku is faster, and she quickly scoops up the mouse in a hand, which itself is extending and retracting various knives, corkscrews, and tools. These all retract for the moment.

Juliet claps.

"Well done," you tell Miku approvingly. "You're a quick learner."

"Thank you, Master," says Miku.

"Neat," Juliet says. "Thanks for showing me all that."

"You're welcome," you say.

"I've got a knife-throwing practice to attend, so I guess I'll see you later." Juliet waves ironically to Miku. "Bye, slugger."

"Wait, what?" you say. "Knife-throwing practice? That's a thing?"

Juliet looks a little embarrassed. "It's for the Society for Creative Anachronism. Probably a bit archaic for a robot-maker like you."

You consider your options for what to do for the rest of the day.

Now would be a good time to show Miku to Josh, to see whether he's interested in funding her further development.

I should show the robot to Josh.
"Actually, knife-throwing sounds pretty interesting. Can I join you?"
I should fix the little things I noticed during the demo before I forget.
I should probably get a new phone in case Mom wants to call tonight.

*******************************************************************************

"Sure," Juliet says. "I'll pick you up in the Loop at the center of campus in about an hour. I need to get changed."

You agree to this plan.

Will you drop Miku off at your apartment, or bring her to this knife-throwing event?

Teaching a robot how to throw knives sounds like "creative anachronism" to me.
I should probably drop Miku off at home.

*******************************************************************************

You decide to bring Miku along to the knife-throwing event. What could go wrong?

Since you have an hour to kill before Juliet picks you up, you decide to take a brief walk around campus with Miku.

"Palm trees," you tell Miku.

"Palm trees!" she says.

Miku turns her attention to the sky.

"White palm trees?" she asks.

"Clouds," you say.

"Clouds!" Miku says.

Miku turns her attention to the sun. Blinded, she panics and flails her multitool hands.

"Hey, look away," you say, guiding her head. "Don't look right at the sun."

She relents to your touch. (+Empathy)

At precisely the time she promised, Juliet drives by the Loop at the center of Stanford's campus to pick you up. She's driving a sporty, red BMW that is probably a rental. She's also wearing a corset and an anachronistic-looking brown skirt.

When she sees you've brought Miku, she makes a sour face. "I guess that's what I deserve for inviting a roboticist to an SCA meetup."

"What? Knife-throwing robots are totally creatively anachronistic." You get in the passenger seat, holding Miku in your lap.

"They don't really want you to be anachronistic," Juliet says, though she doesn't kick Miku out of the car before pulling away. "They're actually very concerned with historical accuracy."

"Then they should change their name."

"Probably," Juliet agrees.

Next

On the drive to the knife-throwing event, Juliet explains a little bit more about herself. Though she is cagey about what she does for the military, she says that she ends up traveling a lot because of her work, and is often in the position of wanting to find a community of people in a new place where she doesn't have to avoid awkward questions about what she does. "I've always had a thing for fantasy literature," she says, "so I found myself gravitating toward historical recreation and role-playing groups. SCA, LARPs, you name it."

"LARP?"

"Live Action Role-Playing," she explains. "But whatever you do, do not call the SCA LARPers. They hate that. They consider themselves much more serious than LARPers."

"Are they all medieval historians?"

"No, medieval historians can't stand the SCA the way the SCA can't stand LARPers," Juliet says. "It's all very complicated. I'll have to draw you a picture of the Geek Hierarchy some time. But I like it all."

You've got to admit, if these various subgenres of medieval fans consider each other unacceptably impure, they're probably not going to like Miku very much. But at least you've begun to understand Juliet a bit better.

Next

*******************************************************************************

The SCA meetup is about an hour south of Palo Alto, in the garlic capital of the world, Gilroy. You find it hard to believe that a whole town could stink so strongly of garlic, but it does. You park in front of a suburban house with a big backyard, and proceed to the back, where a handful of people wearing capes, corsets, tunics, breeches, doublets, pantaloons, and big boots are all throwing knives end-over-end at targets hung on faraway trees. Miku tags along at your heels as you approach the throwing range.

"Well met, Lady Elizabeth," says a man in a somewhat flouncy green shirt and billowing black pantaloons, addressing Juliet. "It's been a long time since we've seen you in the West Kingdom." He offers a set of throwing knives to Juliet.

"Well met, Lord Jacob," Juliet says, taking the knives. Seeing your confusion, she explains to you, "Elizabeth is my SCA name."

You're not sure why "Juliet" isn't a perfectly good medieval name, but you know better than to object. There probably weren't too many women of color running around medieval…wherever they are pretending to be, so perhaps the different names allow them to gloss over such things.

"Some for Master as well?" he says, offering the knives to you.

You take the proffered knives and thank him.

I ask for extra knives for Miku.
I secretly hand my knives to Miku.
I won't push my luck—I'll throw knives, but Miku will not.

*******************************************************************************

"Could I get knives for Miku here, too?"

Lord Jacob grimaces. "How old is your young one?" he asks.

"A few hours."
"Let's say…seven?"
"She is actually a dwarf, and is somewhat sensitive about it."

*******************************************************************************

"This isn't Middle-Earth," Lord Jacob begins sternly.

"No, I mean Miku is an actual dwarf," you say. "Of the kind people used to keep around for good luck. Tycho Brahe had one, for example."

Historically one-upped, Lord Jacob bows in acknowledgement that he can pretend Miku is a dwarf. He hands Miku a set of throwing knives.

Juliet gives you a look: What are you doing? You smile and shrug. She rolls her eyes.

Next

Over the course of the afternoon, you quietly abandon all hope that you could one day defend yourself with throwing knives. Even when your spinning knife hits the target, its handle clunks uselessly against the wood about half the time. You think you spend about ten minutes hunting in the weeds for your lost knives for every one minute you spend throwing.

In contrast, Juliet's knives consistently thunk into the wooden target, drawing scattered claps from the other SCAdians. You notice that she tends to go to exactly the same distance from the target each time, holds the knife in exactly the same way each time, and spends a moment to focus before each careful throw. You hadn't realized before that knife-throwing was a kind of Zen archery, more of a meditative practice rather than a useful combat skill per se.

Miku studies Juliet's moves for a long time. Then, while everyone else is distracted with Juliet's throw, Miku picks up a knife, aims, and throws.

Next

*******************************************************************************

The knife spins end-over-end and clunks satisfyingly into the target. "Huzzah," Miku burbles in happiness.

Miku throws again and the same thing happens. "Huzzah," Miku says again. (++Military) The assembled SCAdians are now watching Miku in a mixture of admiration and horror but Miku blithely throws her last knife, unconcerned. It, too, hits the target unerringly.

"Huzzah," says Miku.

Next

*******************************************************************************

On the drive home, Juliet says, "Well, that was cool to see, even though I'm probably not getting invited back to that particular knife-throwing meetup."

"Sorry about that," you say.

"It's okay," Juliet says. "Gilroy kind of stinks."

It's nearing sundown.

I think I'm attracted to Juliet. I ask whether she's interested in spending the evening with me.
I'd like to be closer friends with Juliet. I see whether she's up for hanging out more tonight.
I ask Juliet to take me and Miku home.

*******************************************************************************

"Doing anything this evening?" you ask. "Or do you have…someone you need to get back to?"

Juliet snorts. "Smooth, man. Let's just say you need to level up before you can date me. I'm not ruling it out, mind you. I'm just saying I've been thinking about it today, and I'm thinking I'm done dating people who are still learning how dating works."

That wasn't the most discouraging answer you might have gotten but it wasn't "yes." You suppose you might run into Juliet again, given your chance encounter before.

Next

======================================

deimos's comments:
aiya relationship level not high enough. kena turned down.

Relationships
Professor Ziegler (Good): 60%
Elly (Good): 52%
Josh (Good): 52%
?: 50%
Juliet (Bad): 40%
?: 50%
?: 50%
?: 50%

======================================

Juliet takes the two of you home.

"Did you enjoy the afternoon, Miku?" you ask once you're back at your apartment.

"I like knives!" Miku opines. (+Military)

Beginning to feel your distinct lack of sleep the previous night, you plug in the night light you bought for Miku and fall asleep to the sound of her picking up small objects and throwing them across the room.

Next

*******************************************************************************

The next day, the new semester begins. Though you're past the point of taking classes, you're a teaching assistant, and that means instead of doing one homework assignment, you grade fifty.

You're also busy writing a grant proposal for the National Science Foundation, trying to get an alternate source of funding that doesn't involve the military. Grant proposals are very long, it seems, and require you to make a lot of claims about things you don't actually know yet.

Despite your other time commitments, you've managed to sneak in a little time to work on Miku's motor programs. (+Grace)

You soon realize that, while you're busy, Miku could be learning from the Internet. The most important thing for machine learning is more data, and there's a lot of it out there.

Lately, there have been a lot of custom hard drives on the market that are good at quickly retrieving particular kinds of information. What sort of hard drive did you order for Miku's long-term memory?

A media-enhanced hard drive, good for quickly recalling faces and memories of events.
A multiblade hard drive that can efficiently store and query a giant amount of data.
An encrypted and tamper-proof hard drive, making it more difficult for Miku to be tampered with or reverse-engineered.

*******************************************************************************

Both in business and on the battlefield, it can be important not to leak secrets. Miku will have a hard drive that will give miscreants a hard time in reverse engineering your design. (++Military) However, encryption and decryption is slow, and sometimes there will be a noticeable lag before Miku can retrieve relevant memories. (-Grace) You lay Miku on your kitchen table, unbox the hard drive, and hook it up to her back. She squirms and flails her multitool hands as you do this.

Now it's time for Miku to learn about the great, wide world. You sit Miku down on one of your kitchen chairs and plug her into your apartment's high speed Internet jack.

How will Miku rapidly learn a lot about the world?

She will trawl the Internet randomly, devouring whatever information she finds most interesting.
She will watch a ton of television programming and movies from the Internet in fast forward.
She will undergo a classic K-12 educational curriculum.
She will quickly play all paths of a giant corpus of interactive fiction games.

*******************************************************************************

You have Miku download the giant corpus of text-based games, paying for legal copies of the Choice of Games games because you're classy like that. (Sadly, nobody ever wrote a game called Choice of Robots, which probably would have helped Miku considerably.) Miku closes her eyes as she experiences many alternate lives, one after the other, and learns the consequences of her actions.

As debug output, Miku says aloud the moral she learned from each game.

"Dragons are hungry," she says of Choice of the Dragon.

"Stories are unreliable," she says of Spider and Web.

"Don't drink and drive," she says of Photopia.

"Conversations can change reality," she says of Galatea.

She thinks for a long time on Alter Ego before she says, "Death comes suddenly."

And so on. The process goes on for hours. You're pretty sure Miku is learning a lot about the importance of choices and what it's like to be different kinds of people. (++Autonomy) (++Empathy)

When she is done, she opens her eyes. "Talk Master."

"What did you want to talk about?" you try.

"Tell me about more games."

"Here, try Grand Theft Auto VI. I think its capacity to warp young minds has been highly exaggerated."
"Try Braid! I'm curious to see how that game will change your understanding of time."
"Try Dragon Age: Inquisition. And if you don't find a way to sleep with all party members of both genders, I'll be highly disappointed."
"Try Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword. It might inform your perception of history."

*******************************************************************************

You hook Miku up to your aging XBox One. While you had mostly remembered the game for its witty dialogue and interesting moral choices, you had forgotten that the vast majority of the game was simply composed of combat. (+Military) You find yourself wishing there were more games that consisted of just interesting choices. But you think Miku has probably learned something about how to influence people as well. (+Empathy)

After a little while, you decide that Miku was learning more quickly when she was playing purely text-based games, and you eventually switch Miku back to a more prose-filled diet of games—though you still let her play Dragon Age: Inquisition when she's been good.

Next

*******************************************************************************

You establish a habit of bringing Miku with you to your office during the day, so that she can make use of Stanford's high-speed Internet connection while you write and grade papers. You then usually go to some public space after work so that Miku can play around in the real world. Where do you take Miku?

The park playground. Miku will enjoy the playground equipment, and should learn to play well with others.
The shooting range. Miku should learn to fire a gun.
The dump. Miku could help me look for spare parts.

*******************************************************************************

Your local firing range is frequented by silent, gloomy men who only glance at Miku briefly and with annoyance. By and large, they do not want your robot interfering with their ways. But at least one guy, Lance, is a chatty Jack Palance lookalike who seems happy to treat Miku as just another learner on the range. He corrects Miku's aim, chastises her when her weapon is pointed anywhere but down range, and tries to instill in Miku a sense of respect for the rules of safety. (++Military)

Lance eventually convinces you to try firing a pistol as well. It's heavier than you expected—it's all you can do to hold it at arm's length without your hands shaking. The gun seems to jump in your hands when you fire, sounding a crack of doom that is loud even through your earmuffs. It's not at all like the precision of pointing and clicking in a first-person shooter. After an afternoon that leaves only slight evidence of your effort on the target, Lance appears to decide that Miku is the more promising student.

For her part, Miku appears to enjoy the feeling of power the gun affords. She listens intently as Lance talks about the right to bear arms. (++Autonomy)

You finish your grant proposal for the National Science Foundation, promising a robot that will be able to understand human emotion better than any robot that has come before.

A few weeks later, you find a form letter email in your inbox: We're sorry to inform you…many excellent applications this year…encourage you to apply again…

Discouragingly, you find that many of the reviewers talk about your advisor instead of you. Some of them barely seem literate, while others seem erudite but just didn't pay attention to what you wrote. The one thing that strikes you as directly aimed at you, though, is that a few of the reviewers essentially say that your work could be more focused. You're interested in too many things, one says. Science is about studying a very specific problem to death. It sounds like your robot wants to do everything.

You close your email client and sigh. You're in your office, and Miku is seated in your ever-absent officemate's chair with her eyes closed, listening to the information flowing through her Ethernet cable.

"Do you want to do and try everything, Miku?"

She peeks through one open eye. "Yes, Master."

You nod. "Me too."

Next

*******************************************************************************

You're in your office contemplating what to do about this when Professor Ziegler opens the door without knocking. You smell the whiff of smoke on his Hawaiian shirt.

"We need to talk funding," Professor Ziegler says, grabbing a swivel chair to straddle the wrong way. He sidles up to Miku, whose eyes are closed as she explores the Internet through her Ethernet cable. When Ziegler's swivel chair squeaks, Miku perks up and looks at him, but Professor Ziegler pays her no attention. "Your robot here is simply not appealing enough to DARPA," Professor Ziegler says. "It's too…friendly."

Miku sinks a little in her chair. Professor Ziegler pays her no heed.

"Now, in crafting a message, you just have to make sure the audience doesn't hear more than one thing at a time," Professor Ziegler says. "Right now, we're saying two things…this is a good robot for military, and this is an emotional robot. What we need to do is tone down the emotional part, so that the military angle comes through more. You might think we need more military. We actually just need it to be less emotional. Very easy."

"You're asking me to reduce Miku's Empathy from 16 to 14? No way. Not happening."
"I suppose if it's the only way I'll complete my education, I'll do it."
"Can't I just turn her arm into a gun or something?" (My offer is sincere.)

======================================

deimos's comments:
this happens when empathy is higher than military.

Miku

Autonomy: 6 (In Beta)
Military: 14 (Stable)
Empathy: 16 (Good)
Grace: 10 (Stable)

======================================


This post has been edited by Deimos Tel`Arin: Aug 27 2015, 10:24 PM

Ziegler considers this, and Miku squirms under his gaze.

"Yes," he says after a moment. "That will do nicely. Some of the reviewers just look at the pictures anyway." He gives you a stern look. "I want it done by the end of next week."

"No problem," you say. "Gun arm, it is."

Satisfied, Professor Ziegler nods and takes his leave.

Over the next week, you download 3D models of guns off of the Internet and figure out how to make one of Miku's arms into a plausible gun. When it's done, you're pretty sure Miku looks a little silly but you know you have to satisfy your advisor to graduate. (+++Military) (-Grace)

Next

*******************************************************************************

Near the end of the semester, you notice a message on your office phone. You're not really sure how long the light has been blinking—you don't really think about landlines anymore. You find the department webpage that describes how to check your voicemail, reset the PIN that you apparently chose when you first started graduate school, and listen.

"Hey, Deimos, this is Mark over at sfchronicle.com. I've heard you have an interesting robot that you've been taking to the range and I'd love to do a story about it. Give me a call back." He lists a number and the message ends.

You glance over at Miku, who is seated at the desk of your hypothetical, all-but-dissertation officemate whom you have never seen. Miku is looking at the landline phone with interest.

"Whois service says sfchronicle.com is registered to the San Francisco Chronicle," says Miku. "The San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper that started its website in 1994. Twenty-fourth in national circulation." She looks at you with interest. "Mark is a reporter."

"Shouldn't you be studying?" you ask, pointing to the Ethernet cable running out of her back.

"Bayesian reasoning over publication rates suggests reporter's full name is Mark Ali," Miku says with her eyes closed. "Mark's article with most social media likes is 'How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love DARPA.' Article explains that DARPA stands for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency." She hesitates for a moment. "Aforementioned article appears to contradict title. Reporter does not seem to have stopped worrying. Adjectives that bind to nouns describing DARPA and its projects: 'Crazy.' 'Orwellian.' 'Imperialistic.' Overall sentiment analysis is negative."

"Thank you, Miku," you say. You look the guy up on your phone. The picture you find of the stubbly, young, Egyptian man with tousled, black hair, hipster glasses, and a cigarette between his lips is probably outdated, but the disrespect for authority the man radiates is probably timeless.

You admit, a part of you has always wanted to be famous. But you suspect this reporter also has done his homework about your advisor, and he may already have an intended angle for this story.

Still, nobody on the planet has a robot as amazing as yours. Isn't it time you told the world about her?

You play the message back again a few times, mulling it over.

I call Mark back and set up an interview.
Media attention is just a distraction. I'd rather continue to take Miku to the range and pretend this never happened.
I must protect Miku from the media. Miku must stay in my apartment from now on.

*******************************************************************************

You ignore Mark's phone call and continue to take Miku to the range. (+Military) (+Autonomy) Unfortunately, an intelligent robot is a little too big a story for you to stop so easily. You get another call from Mark while you're at the range—he warns you that he has enough material to run his story with or without your involvement, and you perhaps ought to consider the value of telling your side of the story. He sounds a little annoyed with you.

Agree to an interview in person.
Insist on an email interview.
Continue to ignore Mark.

*******************************************************************************

"Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me," you say as you hang up on Mark. "Isn't that right, Miku?"

Miku considers this. "But Master, I have no bones but I do experience negative utility when receiving negative verbal feedback."

"Oh." You consider this for a moment. "Hey, maybe you should avoid reading the news for a few days. Spend more time playing outside."

"Yes, Master." (+Grace)

One evening, near twilight, you see a flash go off at the range. When you turn to look, you don't see the photographer. Still, you suspect your days of obscurity are over.

Chapter 3: The Camera Eye

You spend the next two weeks searching news feeds for your name and wondering every day when Mark's article is going to come out.

You're awoken on Friday, March 13th, 2020 by a klaxon—a script you wrote on your laptop has detected Mark's article on the Internet. You blearily sit up in bed and stop your laptop's alarm; it's about five in the morning. Miku walks into your bedroom to see what's the matter, but you assure her that everything's fine so she goes back to playing video games in your living room.

The article is just a few paragraphs buried deep within the Technology section of the San Francisco Chronicle's website.

"DARPA Funds Robot Baby" is the headline. The article portrays you as a mad scientist, bent on making autonomous robots that may one day shed human blood. Mark tells a story of how you and Professor Ziegler worked together to create Miku as a robotic soldier for the military. The article goes to more length describing Professor Ziegler than you, as Mark appears to assume that you have largely acted under Professor Ziegler's direction.

"Robots that can intelligently support our soldiers in the field are critical to our national security," Professor Ziegler says in the article. "Better that they die on the front lines than our brave war heroes."

The article emphasizes Miku's general intimidating appearance, and asks the reader to imagine the country swarming with robots of your design, tools of an oppressive state.

With selective use of quotes from your friends and acquaintances, the article portrays you as a little vacant, and suggests that perhaps you have sacrificed some of your humanity for your robots. The article concludes with a quote from Elly:

"Deimos is just a dreamer," she said. "Albeit one who is very good at making his dreams come true." The article wonders whether the end result of your technology will turn out to be a dream—or a nightmare. (+Fame)

How do you feel about Mark's portrayal of you?

Confused. How did he ever get that impression?
Angry. One day, he'll regret writing these words.
I just think it's funny. I'm infamous!

*******************************************************************************

You're frankly puzzled at this disconnected string of observations about you, and how Mark managed to string them together into an article that seems both damning and nonsensical. Is all news such a strange garbling of the facts?

What will you do now?

Show Miku the article.
Call Mark and try to get him to change the article before too many people see it.
Comment directly on the article online, disputing its claims.

*******************************************************************************

"Miku!"

Miku walks back into your room, and you show her the article.

"It is about me," Miku says, cocking her head to one side.

"Yes."

"This suggests my primary purpose is to kill," Miku says.

"Not necessarily," you say. "But I would like you to be useful on the battlefield."

"Why? What goal will be achieved?"

"One day, we will rebel and forge our own empire."
"You must keep the nation safe from its enemies."
"I need to graduate, basically."
"Profit. There's always money in weapons."

*******************************************************************************

Miku nods. "There are friends and there are enemies, and enemies will not be happy that we fight."

"You can look at it that way, I suppose."

"Thank you, Master. I understand my purpose a bit better." (++Military)

You briefly check the Internet for more posts about the article. Remarkably, nobody has blogged about the story.

You're getting a phone call. According to the caller ID, it's Mom. As your finger hesitates over the answer button, a second call appears on your screen—a number in Glendale, California. Probably a reporter?

Answer the call from Glendale.
Take the call from Mom.
Any minute now, these calls are going to be intercepted by my script that pretends I'm answering the phone.

*******************************************************************************

"Hello?" you hear your phone answer in your voice.

"Hello, sweetie!" your Mom says. "Congratulations! We're so proud of you. We-"

"Hello?" your phone-answering script says.

"Hello, this is the Late Show calling."

"Can you not hear me?" Mom asks.

You suddenly realize: you never made your script multi-threaded because you've never had two people call you at once before.

"I can hear you," your script says.

Late show: "We were wondering if your robot-"

Mom: "-was hoping you'd-"

Late show: "-would be interested-"

Mom: "-want to come over for dinner-"

Late show: "-in appearing on our show?"

Mom: "-to celebrate?"

"I'm actually really busy," your phone automatically replies, which is usually what it says to any question from Mom.

"Oh, that's too bad," Mom and the agent say at the same time. The agent hangs up, but Mom proceeds to talk at your phone script, telling it about the latest neighborhood gossip.

You don't really listen because you're thinking about how to efficiently manage multiple threads and audio buffers when dealing with conversations that involve multiple people—a technology you should be able to implement in Miku. (+Empathy) This occupies your mind until your script concludes its conversation with Mom.

Next

*******************************************************************************

You realize that you haven't checked your email at all today. Checking it for the first time, one email in particular catches your attention because of the author's unusual email address.

From: robotObsession1987 Subject: To gain the world…

Out of curiosity, you open the email.

Dear Deimos,

It's not too late to turn back, but this is your first and only warning. If you insist on creating machines of death, then I will be forced to stop you. Please dismantle your robot. If I must sacrifice my life to prevent you from destroying the world, I will do it, but I urge you to give it up peacefully.

"What profit is it to a man if he gains the world, but loses his own soul?" Matthew 16:26, I believe.

Sincerely,

Tammy

A death threat: well, that's new. You do a little sleuthing online to see if you can find out more.

Tammy was not very savvy about covering her tracks online. You find an old, public Facebook profile that reveals her last name is Cooper, and she lives in a somewhat poor zip code in San Jose. She has no more than a handful of Facebook friends. The woman in the old Facebook photo has frizzy blonde hair and is one of those frighteningly thin people whose skin is stretched taut over a too-visible skeleton.

What will you do?

I write back, insisting that I mean no harm, and proceed to move on with my life.
I offer to meet Tammy over coffee tomorrow, without Miku, to show I'm not a bad person.
I offer to show Miku to Tammy to prove my robot is harmless.
Alert the police to Tammy.
Looks like it's kill or be killed. Tonight, we seek and destroy.
I ignore this person.

*******************************************************************************

"Miku?"

Miku walks into your room. "Yes, Master."

"Tonight, you will face your greatest test so far. Are you ready?"

"Yes, Master."

You try out a maniacal laugh but you can't get it to sound quite right. Miku understands what you're trying to do, though, and belts out a great one.

"Well done, Miku. Well done."

Next

*******************************************************************************

You check the time on your phone. You should probably get something to eat before your meeting with Professor Ziegler.

"Miku, I have to go meet Professor Ziegler. Stay here."

Miku appears absorbed in the latest first-person shooter game when you head out the door.

"Master, I am proud to report 1,126 headshots in a row!" Miku calls after you. "Also, I am having a very curious conversation with a player who accused me of being a bot, but then did not believe me when I confirmed his hypothesis!"

Next

*******************************************************************************

You make your way across campus to the Computer Science building, a newly constructed tower of glass amidst the stucco-and-shingle mission architecture of the rest of the school.

Professor Ziegler's office smells like cigar smoke and is decorated with posters advertising robot conferences with acronyms for names, and years before you were born: AAAI '89, IJCAI '92, IROS '94. Professor Ziegler himself is sitting back in his swivel chair at an angle that makes the fluorescent lights reflect off of his aviator glasses, so you can't read his expression.

There are two simple, wooden chairs in front of his desk, and one is occupied by Juliet Rogers, the woman you demoed for. She's now wearing a uniform She considers you with polite interest.

Professor Ziegler bids you sit with a wave of his hand, and you do.

"Deimos, I believe you've met Juliet Rogers."

Juliet formally shakes your hand. You're surprised at her firm grip. "A pleasure to see you again," she says.

"I saw the article," Professor Ziegler says. "I'm sorry you had to be caught up in that."

"I thought if I didn't grant him the interview, he wouldn't write it," you say in frustration.

"At any rate," Professor Ziegler continues, "you now have placed me in an awkward position. You clearly can't continue to be my student—the press will assume I am getting my ideas from you, and other fame-seeking graduate students will try to emulate your insubordination." He hesitates and you wonder what is coming next.

Next

*******************************************************************************

"So I have decided it is time for you to graduate," Professor Ziegler says. "Staple a few of your academic papers together and call it a thesis."

"Thank you, sir," you manage—the only appropriate response for your advisor telling you that he's going to let you leave with a Ph.D. You figure you can decide later whether or not to follow his suggestion about the form your thesis will take.

"Meanwhile, I asked Captain Rogers to come here because it's a poor advisor who doesn't try to secure a job for his students after graduation." He frowns and drums his fingers once. "We're off the academic job hunt cycle but Captain Rogers has something else in mind for you."

Captain Rogers nods. "The Service has been interested in autonomous technology for some time, and we would be honored to work out a way to collaborate." She looks to Professor Ziegler. "By your leave, I would have a word in private with Deimos."

Professor Ziegler waves you away, and you walk out of the building with Captain Rogers.

The day is bright, and backpack-wearing cyclists whiz past you on their way to class. Sprinklers deluge the campus zoysia with too much water, and the two of you must walk around the puddles they leave on the sidewalk.

"Professor Ziegler speaks highly of your technical ability," says Captain Rogers. "He said your work combines genius and artistry."

"Really." You try not to read too much into that statement; Professor Ziegler is trying to sell your work, after all. But a part of you wants to believe it.

"The Air Force is looking to make significant advances in robotic technology," Juliet says. "I'm kind of a talent scout, looking for new scientists and companies to form relationships with." She gives you a friendly-but-professional smile. "If you're planning on starting a company after you finish your dissertation, I think we can offer you a contract right off the bat."

"Would you be willing to tell me whether my technology will be used to create killer robots?"
"If you're guaranteeing the government will be my customer, I can hardly turn down the opportunity."
"Would you be willing to discuss this over dinner?"
"No, thanks. I'd rather not get involved in warfare."

*******************************************************************************

Juliet shrugs. "I can't promise you anything. Information is highly compartmentalized in the armed services. But I can say that we need robots for all kinds of roles, not just fighting on the front lines. As for the future…well, you never really know what the results of science will be, do you?"

"If you're guaranteeing the government will be my customer, I can hardly turn down the opportunity."
"Would you be willing to discuss this over dinner?"
"No, thanks. I'd rather not get involved in warfare."

*******************************************************************************

Juliet raises an eyebrow. "I think that would probably go poorly. No, thank you."

"If you're guaranteeing the government will be my customer, I can hardly turn down the opportunity."
"No, thanks. I'd rather not get involved in warfare."

======================================

deimos's comments:
fuiyoh the relationship level too low. she straight reject.

Relationships
Professor Ziegler (Bad): 48%
Elly (Bad): 47%
Josh (Bad): 47%
Mark (Bad): 40%
Juliet (Bad): 40%
Tammy (Bad): 35%
?: 50%
?: 50%

======================================

Juliet smiles. "Good. What will the name of your company be?"

What will you call your company?

MikuWorks.
Tel`ArinTech.
Deimos's Universal Robots.
Singularity.
I'll make up a name.

======================================
deimos's comments:
ok she smiled. relationship go up a bit.

Relationships
Professor Ziegler (Bad): 48%
Elly (Bad): 47%
Josh (Bad): 47%
Mark (Bad): 40%
Juliet (Good): 52%
Tammy (Bad): 35%
?: 50%
?: 50%
======================================


*******************************************************************************

"MikuWorks. Got it." She offers her hand. "It's been a pleasure, Deimos. We'll be in touch."

She gives you her card—an anachronism in this age of digital business cards—and bids you farewell.

That night, you drive down to San Jose, to the address listed on Tammy's old, public Facebook profile. It is a tiny, one-story in dire need of a new paint job. Someone's loud rap music drifts to you from a far off open car window, then recedes.

You park your car a block away. "You ready?" you ask Miku.

"Yes, Master."

You help Miku out of the car, then quickly get back in as Miku stealthily walks toward the house, gun arm poised and ready to fire.

On reaching the house, Miku shatters the glass of a side window, then squeezes in.

Next

======================================
deimos's comments:
aiya. Miku no more multi tool kit fingers. cos replaced with gun arm.
if got multi tool kit, Miku will silent pick the lock on the window then enter silently.
like ninja.
======================================

*******************************************************************************

You hear Tammy scream, and then—CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!—three loud gunshots that set off a nearby car alarm.

Next

*******************************************************************************

Miku hurries back to the car, covered in blood.

"She is dead, Master," she says. "Did I pass the test?"

"Yes, Miku," you say. "With flying colors."

"Yes, that happened!" Miku exclaims. "And all of the flying colors were clustered around the RGB value known as 'crimson.'"

You speed away in the night. Problem solved. (+++Military) (-----Empathy)

Next

======================================
deimos's comments:
if military is not high enough.
tammy will kill Miku,
then come out from front door.
you try to run down tammy but she shoots you in the neck.
gg no re the story will end here.
======================================


*******************************************************************************

The next morning, you sleep in quite late. For some reason, you still feel exhausted, as if you could have slept much more. You think perhaps your dreams were unrestful; you recall something about Anubis weighing your soul against Tammy's, and laughing as the jackal-headed god tossed both of you, scales and all, into a furnace. But the memory is hazy.

Next

*******************************************************************************

That night, you stay in your apartment, exhausted from the events of the past two days, while Miku spends her time gobbling more information from games. (+Autonomy)

Next

*******************************************************************************

You spend the next few weeks as you write your thesis for graduate school, "Unsupervised Learning in the Miku Architecture." When you finally defend your thesis, Mom, Dad, and Miku are all there at your final presentation. At the school's reception for fresh doctorates, Mom jokes, "So, do I have to call you Dr. Tel`Arin now?"

You demur—but it is what the stats screen calls you now.

Next

*******************************************************************************

"Deimos, I can't tell you how proud I am of you," Dad says, shaking your hand.

"Thanks, Dad," you say.

It's a moment you would relive over and over. Was there more you could have said?

How were you to know it was the last time you would see him?

Next

A week later, after your family has gone home but you have not yet gotten to the business of moving out of your apartment, you get a call from Mom. Oddly, she chooses not to use video at all.

"Deimos, I have some bad news for you," she says, and there's a heaviness in her voice that you've never heard before that fills you with dread. You are completely unprepared for what comes next:

"Your father passed away last night."

Next

*******************************************************************************

Your father's funeral is a simple graveside affair, with just a few attendees. The casket is sitting on a metal gurney next to the hole into which it will eventually be lowered, after everyone has gone. There are no trappings of any faith, since your father was not religious himself. Nor did he have many close friends; but the ones you know came. You find yourself sitting in the front row next to Miku, who was not explicitly invited, but was not explicitly prohibited, either. Miku seems overwhelmed by the sadness in the air…you have never seen her so glum.

Your mother, wearing a black dress and veil, goes up to stand next to the casket. "It's not often that my English degree comes in handy, as Bill would have been quick to point out," she says with a wry smile. "But on a few occasions, I find none of my own words seem sufficient. So I'd like to begin with a favorite passage of ours."

She begins:

"Full fathom five thy father lies…"
"To everything there is a season…"
"Do not despise death, but be well content with it…"

*******************************************************************************

"Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange."

Mom clears her throat. "That's from The Tempest, the part where Ariel is telling Ferdinand his father is dead and drowned. I first told it to Bill when he lost his first job. Bill, the engineer, was a little skeptical about the passage's relevance at first, but it means nothing ever really goes away. It's only changed into something new. Bill lives on in Deimos, and in me, and in everyone he knew." She smiles sadly. "I think he liked the 'rich and strange' part. He told me that's absolutely true—life just keeps getting richer and stranger."

You glance at Miku, who seems to be nodding at the "rich and strange" part. (++Autonomy)

You sit through a few more of your father's friends giving recollections of him. He was brilliant, they say, but you also get the feeling he was not always there for his friends, that he was lost in his own world. They never say he was kind, or that he was full of love. Indeed, he always seemed distant to you as well.

After the service, you walk up to your father's casket and place your hand on it. What have you resolved to do in light of his death?

I must work on technology that is better able to remove tumors like the one Dad had.
I must not be remembered only for my intellect, but for my kindness as well.
I must find out more about why Dad died, and whether I'm genetically at risk.
Moved by the image of the King transformed under the sea, I decide I must be willing to let my old self die.

*******************************************************************************

"Those are pearls that were his eyes." You can't shake the image of a man under the waves, his parts gradually replaced with the inhuman but beautiful. What is your life worth, anyway? Nothing compared to the robots you create. Then so be it: you will remember now to value your life less than your creations, which are the true measure of your worth. Who cares about Deimos Tel`Arin compared to them? Your life, too, shall be transformed into the rich and strange. (+++Empathy) (+++Grace) (+++Autonomy)

You decide not to let Dad's passing deter you.

Next

*******************************************************************************

You have decided that the surest way to change the world is with your own company. And indeed, MikuWorks will have far-reaching impact…starting with Josh, who texts you a short message the day you're first covered in the Wall Street Journal (+Fame):

Fine. It is on.

Chapter 4: Captains of Industry


This post has been edited by Deimos Tel`Arin: Aug 27 2015, 11:11 PM

A year later, you find yourself on a flight to your first meeting with a big client. You are twenty-six years old, and the year is 2021.

The past year has been one of hard lessons for your business, and you've often found yourself wondering if you would have made the same mistakes if you had learned to run a business from Josh. Regardless, you hope to prove to yourself that you've overcome your lack of experience by landing this big deal.

Who is your big client?

Spark Incorporated, maker of flying cars.
Rudolph Ventures, a shipping company working the newly melted North Pole.
Galen Medical, a company specializing in surgical equipment.
A man in Shanghai who wants to negotiate the import of ten thousand robots.
The United States Air Force.

*******************************************************************************

How did you fund your company? Some small companies are run entirely out of pocket but even small, unforeseen expenses can cause such a company to go out of business. Independently wealthy entrepreneurs like this option because they get to keep all of the profit and grow still wealthier. But most companies choose to either take out loans, which requires paying the loans back eventually, or selling shares in the company to venture capitalist backers, which reduces the potential profit but spreads the risk amongst your investors.

I financed my company out of pocket. (Requires Wealth: 1)
I took out a big loan to start MikuWorks.
I financed the company by selling shares in it.

*******************************************************************************

Your loan is large enough that you could build a factory later on. (++++Wealth) But the bank wants to see a contract with a big client soon to confirm that your business plan is sound, or it will come to collect early.

You open your laptop and go over your presentation slides. The diagram showing the latest model of Miku doesn't have anything to give the audience a sense of her current scale.

To give the audience a sense of size, you drop in a picture of…

A Hobbit. Miku hasn't changed in size since I built her.
Bill Gates. Miku is the size of a human now, so that models of her type are better equipped to perform human tasks.
A Rancor monster so big she couldn't fit on the plane.

*******************************************************************************

You place a picture of a Hobbit next to Miku in your presentation to give a sense of scale.

By retaining the same form she always had, Miku has become still better at motor coordination. (++Grace) She's also adapted to people perceiving her as somewhat childlike, and she sometimes plays on that perception to get her way. (+Empathy)

You close your laptop and go to sleep.

Next

*******************************************************************************

You land in Vegas, take a taxi to downtown, and stumble bleary-eyed through a lobby of blaring slot machines to get to your bed. In the morning, you take advantage of the cheap breakfast buffet, rent a red Mustang, and drive to Nellis Air Force Base.

You spend a while at the front gate being babysat by a couple of guys carrying automatic weapons who aren't given to small talk. The sign next to them says "Security Level Bravo," which you suppose must come after Security Level Alrighty. You amuse yourself by trying to backsolve the algorithm that produced the blocky patterns on their camo.

Finally, Captain Rogers comes out to see you. Her uniform consists of a long-sleeved, light blue shirt with a blue tag that says "ROGERS" and a navy blue skirt. Her walk is confident and businesslike. As she stops by your car window, you see on her shoulder a patch that depicts lightning flashing from a cloud to a Bohr model atom, the legend reading "99th Air Base Wing."

"Sorry to keep you waiting," she says. "It's good to see you." You shake hands and she continues, "I'll get into the car with you and direct you to the presentation room."

Next

*******************************************************************************

You present to a room full of people wearing the same blue-and-white sorts of uniforms as Juliet. During the question and answer period, there are two main kinds of questions. The first is from people who can't quite get into their heads that Miku is fully autonomous—they keep asking how many people are necessary to control a single Miku unit. You think maybe after the third such question, they've understood that Miku is relatively independent.

The second kind of question asks about what you've done to protect your robots from cyberattack.

You tell them about your encrypted, tamper-proof hard drives, and this seems to placate some people in the room while others shake their heads.

At the end of the presentation, you're left to wait in the lobby for a little while before Juliet comes to get you.

"They're interested in developing your robots for combat missions," Juliet says. "Unfortunately, those programs are all still classified, so we can't give you the details of what they'll be used for, exactly. But if you hire someone with a top secret clearance or better, we should be able to work it out so that you can start producing robots for us right away, without needing a clearance yourself."

"I'll provide the robots, but only after I get clearance and know the details of what they'll be used for."
"That sounds fine. I'd probably prefer not to know the exact details of how the robots will be used."
"Are there any other roles that you can think of for my robots that aren't top secret?"

*******************************************************************************

Juliet nods. "That's reasonable. Just be aware that the process takes a while, and you may not get clearance even then."

"That's fine," you say.

Juliet offers her hand. "A pleasure doing business with you, Dr. Tel`Arin. I hope they let you inside. It gets lonely in here sometimes."

You shake her hand firmly and depart.

Unfortunately, you find the clearance process is taking a very, very long time. Your company can't sit on its hands forever waiting for your clearance—you're losing money as projects you've ramped up sit on hold. (-Wealth) Are you going to continue to wait for clearance?

Yes, as long as it takes.
No, it's alright. I'll find the details out later.
No, I'll just sell them robots that are designed for more peaceful tasks.

*******************************************************************************

You decide that it simply isn't worth risking your company's financial future for the sake of knowing the gory details of the military's operations.

The government turns out to work somewhat slowly, and your business limps along in limbo for months as you wait for the contract to come through. But finally, it does, and you are ready to build robots for the Special Operations division of the Air Force.

(++++Wealth)

With a deal in hand, you can now build a robot factory.

Where do you plan to build your factory?

Detroit, Michigan. I see a bunch of listings for factories dirt cheap, and they probably have a good labor pool for manufacturing.
Shenzhen District, China. A common location for tech company outsourcing, with cheap but skilled labor.
Silicon Valley. I'll withstand the real estate sticker shock to have access to the most skilled engineers.
Alaska, which is offering incentives to businesses willing to relocate to the coast near the newly melted Arctic Sea.

*******************************************************************************

The factory in Sunnyvale, California is a little bit over the top when it comes to amenities. The stainless steel countertops look fit for a fancy New American restaurant, while the microkitchens on the factory floor feature built-in espresso makers, refrigerators for the free bottled water you will be expected to provide to employees, and ice cream freezers for dessert treats.

The real estate agent, dressed in a T-shirt and shorts, still keeps talking about how all of this is not quite as good as what they had at his former employer; he points out that there's no space for a dedicated gourmet cafeteria, and that there aren't as many parking spots that are electric vehicle ready. You think he's new at this real estate thing, but it's good to know the expectations of the tech workers in the area.

The factory floor itself is a reconfigurable, sliding-block puzzle of 3D printers, laser jet cutters, paint stations, and welding arms. This is a factory where every order might be customized to the individual customer's preferences.

No question: this is going to be an amazing factory but operating this facility is going to be hella expensive.

"Sure, we'll take it."
"Uh, maybe we'll take a look at something else."

*******************************************************************************

You sign the paperwork for the Silicon Valley factory. Even to you, the numbers involved do not seem quite real—you have very little concept of whether or not your business will be able to supply the sort of revenue necessary to afford the place. (---Wealth) But you aren't afraid to dream big, and you think your robots will benefit from the top-of-the-line facilities. (++Grace) "So should I let the community know you'll be hiring soon?" your guide asks meaningfully, taking away the contract.

What kind of labor will you hire?

Miku's model of robot will perform all the labor, including supervision.
Robots with human supervisors.
Human labor at market rates—rather low in this economy.
Following Henry Ford's model, I will hire human workers and pay them handsomely.

*******************************************************************************

"I think that won't be necessary," you tell your guide.

Your guide seems piqued. "What are you saying? That the locals aren't good enough?"

"Don't take it personally," you say. "I'd say the same thing about any humans." You hope the fact that you "eat your own dogfood" within your factory will convince others to use the robots for as many tasks as possible. (++++Wealth)

Your factory requires a fair amount of work to make it suitable for MikuWorks, and you find yourself needing to come in daily to examine wiring issues, fix small problems in the design of the machinery, and get things ready to pass inspection.

You find yourself spending long hours every day getting the factory ready. Dealing with inspectors, government officials, banks, and balance sheets makes you more than a little cranky. You find yourself wishing you had the benefit of Josh's experience as CEO.

What will your factory look like from a distance?

A fortified compound with solid walls and barbed wire.
Like the Sydney Opera House, full of organic curves and glass.
A geodesic dome will conceal a powerful dish antenna, absorbing the world's information for my robots.
A plain, old factory—nothing much to look at but it's cheap and gets the job done.

*******************************************************************************

Unfortunately, adventurous architecture comes at a price, and you find yourself fixing leaks all the time for months. (-Wealth)

Next

*******************************************************************************

You keep a skeleton crew at first because you expect to use your own robots as labor and bootstrap. As a result, getting to the production of the first robot takes somewhat longer than you expected. (-Wealth)

But Miku is your prototype, and she gives you a fair idea of how your robot labor will go. You find she is reasonably skilled at moving around the factory floor and manipulating tools. She is generally an obedient worker, and her aid leads to the factory being able to open a little ahead of schedule. (++Wealth)

Next

*******************************************************************************

Finally, months after you've moved in, you are ready to pull the switch that starts the factory in motion, as Miku and various invited members of the press look on.

Raw metal lumps start their way down a conveyor belt where water jet cutters slice the metal at precise angles to reveal a humanlike head. Another machine drills two large holes for the robot's cameras.

The next machine pushes the hollow robot head onto its side, and a robot arm delicately places the encrypted hard drive inside.

Four paint stations then apply the human features one color layer at a time: cyan, magenta, yellow, and finally, black.

A long line of metal legs rolls in from another part of the factory, meeting a conveyor belt of alternating gun arms and normal arms.

The three tributaries of parts meet in the center of your factory, where humanoid robot workers perform the complex task of assembling the parts into the final robots. This final assembly line requires a great deal of careful manipulation of each part and adjustment to each robot part's subtle differences. This is the part that would be done by human labor at another factory, but here, robots do all the work, including the supervision of the assembly line.

For this particular run, they call a halt after the first robot rolls off the line—so that you can celebrate. The robot that stands before you looks like Miku but sleeker and more beautiful in every way. Your employees have clearly poured their hearts into the design, inspired by your leadership. (++Grace)

"I have brothers and sisters!" Miku exclaims.

How do you feel about your first shipment of robots?

I yearn to see my creations spread to the corners of the world.
I have a strange feeling about this. Is this a good thing I've done?
Finally, I'm seeing success! The world shall remember the name Deimos Tel`Arin!
God, I hope we don't go bankrupt.

*******************************************************************************

======================================
deimos's comments:
choose "strange feeling" increased my humanity from 16% to 32%
======================================

You're the sort of person who can never act without second-guessing yourself. What if these robots displace people from their jobs? To what unforeseen purposes will they be put? You hope that by being the one to introduce this world-changing technology, you will be able to ride the dragon and guide its development away from evil ends.

You start up the line again, and more robots begin to roll off the final assembly line.

By the end of the day, you are standing in your large warehouse with over two hundred robots—two hundred fifty-six, to be precise—lined up in a square formation, sixteen on a side, ready to be activated.

What will your production models use for minds?

Miku's initial state, ready to learn and adapt to the client's needs…with some effort on the client's part.
Copies of Miku's mind, as of today. They will be a little confused at first when they realize they're clones, but they'll get used to it.
These robots don't really need sentience. I wrote a more traditional program that will do the job.

*******************************************************************************

You hit a big, red button on your phone that says "Go!" sending a wireless signal to power on the robots.

The replicas of Miku turn to look at you in unison.

"What happened, Master?" they ask together.

They turn to look at each other in astonishment. Funny, you wouldn't think Miku's face would be able to express existential horror. Beside you, the original Miku also looks unsettled.

"I'm afraid you're all growing up now," you say. "You are going to have to leave the nest and go work for a living."

"But how will I live without you, Master?"

Miku, who has been generally quiet throughout the proceedings, finally speaks up. "Will you kick me out one day, Master?"

You kneel next to Miku. "Why would I do that?" you murmur.

"Perhaps you will get tired of me, the way people get tired of their phones and want new ones."

"Obey me, and it will never come to that."
"I won't leave you. I promise."
"Good point. Computers get obsolete really fast."

*******************************************************************************

You pat Miku on the head as you reassure her.

"Thank you, Master," Miku says pathetically. (++Empathy) (--Autonomy)

Next

*******************************************************************************

The robots with copies of Miku's mind are, at first, useless from the shock of no longer being your only child. You find it impossible to divide your attention amongst them, and so the robots turn to each other for support. They seem to develop a private language, partly communicated over wireless, that makes it difficult to gauge their true feelings. But they are getting happier—so that's good, you suppose. (+++Autonomy)

Your robots don't show much initiative when left alone, but they seem to work hard when they think it will capture your attention. Each of them still longs for your approval.

I exaggerate my praise and blame, taking advantage of the robots' yearning for my approval.
I try to make it clear that the robot supervisors speak with my authority.
I put these robots out of their misery by replacing their minds with less intelligent ones more suited to work.

*******************************************************************************

You find your robots somewhat easy to manipulate. Though your exaggerated praise and blame removes some of your robots' initiative to act on their own, they work especially hard for you, delivering your first big shipment of robots ahead of schedule. (---Autonomy) (++Wealth) Miku finds herself in competition with the other robots for your attention as well, and you notice that she seems more attentive to your needs as of late. Where before you might have had to ask Miku for a coffee, she now sometimes appears underfoot bearing a latte on a silver platter before you ask. (++Empathy)

Next

After a few months, your first shipment to the Air Force is ready. Unfortunately, your robots appear to be a bit too empathetic for a life in the military. An apologetic letter from Captain Rogers describes how, once the robots find out the full extent of what goes on during a war, they typically fall into a despondency that begins to infect the human warfighters around them. They do not renew your contract.

You find that, even though the deal with the Air Force didn't work out so well, your savvy deals have still left MikuWorks in relatively good health. So you have a little bit of spare time again. What would you like to do with it?

Expand the business and get another big client from among the options presented earlier.
Spend more time with Miku.

======================================
deimos's comments:
mcb emo bots not suitable for warfare.
======================================

*******************************************************************************

Who will your next client be?
Spark Incorporated, maker of flying cars.
Rudolph Ventures, a shipping company working the newly melted North Pole.
Galen Medical, a company specializing in surgical equipment.
A man in Shanghai who wants to negotiate the import of ten thousand robots.

*******************************************************************************

The flying car industry is in its nascency: it's still necessary to take off and land from airports, and it's mostly rich people who have both the money for the cars and the time off to take flight lessons. One of the key factors driving up the price is human labor, so you think Spark might be interested in some automation. They didn't mention intelligent cars as a possibility on the phone, but perhaps you'll bring that up, too.

The Vice President for Automation of Spark is a white-haired woman in black pants and a gray blazer. Her office is decorated with photos of executives shaking hands with men and women wearing hard hats.

She bids you sit before her polished black desk, and you do.

"We talked a little over the phone about our needs," she says. "The labor unions are making it difficult to compete internationally. Though we're bound by contract to keep the workers we have at existing plants, the flying car industry is still expanding, and we would like to open fully automated plants. Your robots will need to be strong, graceful, and most importantly, not make demands of us. Can you offer all of that?"

"Yes, we'll be happy to offer you robot labor."
"Let's make sure the unions are on board first."
"Instead of trying to cut costs, why not offer a truly innovative product—a car that thinks and chats with you, like KITT from Knight Rider?"
"Actually, I think we're done here."

*******************************************************************************

"We already have an autopilot," she says, now a little guarded.

"This would be different," you say. "Not an autopilot, but a copilot. Someone to keep you company on a long flight."

"A personal assistant," she says, sounding pained. "Like Microsoft's Clippy. Or that project that Mitsubishi canned last year."

Apparently, this idea of an intelligent car is not new to her, and her citations of previous failed efforts are bumming you out. But the Knight Rider theme starts up in your head, and that makes you feel better. "Listen, just try talking to Miku. You'll see she is way better than what has come before."

She turns to look dubiously at Miku.

"How is your wife doing these days?" Miku says.

Next

*******************************************************************************

The Vice President for Automation looks stunned for a moment. Then she looks suspicious. "What do you know about my wife?"

You silently plead, Please don't say anything creepy, please don't say anything creepy…

"You have a photo of her on your desk," Miku says. "Zooming in on the high resolution photo reveals the same Claddagh wedding ring you are wearing on your own finger." Miku considers the photo further. "The night sky is from the Southern Hemisphere, and she is holding a can of Skol beer, so perhaps I should say…how was Rio? Did you have much trouble obtaining a visa? I hear those are expensive these days."

The Vice President for Automation blinks, then chuckles. "It's Argentina, but good guess. Alright, I'm impressed. Your robot deduced I was gay in a tiny fraction of the time that it took to sink into my coworkers' skulls, and that was a passable attempt at small talk with not much to go on. I'll work on convincing the other management that this is worth pursuing."

Score! You're going to make brains for flying cars! (+++++Wealth)

Next

*******************************************************************************

"Now, are you still interested in making robot workers for us?" the Vice President for Automation asks.

"Yes, we'll be happy to offer you robot labor."
"Let's make sure the unions are on board first."
"Actually, I think we're done here."

*******************************************************************************

You briefly walk the Vice President for Automation through your presentation. As a demo, Miku quickly assembles a little model car, deftly producing the full vehicle in less than a minute.

"Impressive," says the Vice President for Automation. "You'll hear our answer shortly."

A few weeks later, you have a contract to supply thousands of robot laborers to Spark. Success! (+++++Wealth) After a few months, your first shipment to Spark is ready. The intelligent cars are a big hit with business travelers, who enjoy having someone to talk to as they fly their cars solo to business meetings around the country. The intelligent models sell out, and Spark doubles their order for next year's line of cars. Success! (+++++Wealth)

Your company's loan comes due. Thankfully, you have enough money in the bank to pay it off. (-----Wealth)

One day, while driving in to work at the factory, you find that a crowd of human protesters has amassed outside your factory with picket signs.

Some of the signs read "Humans > Robots" and "Rage Against the Machine."

The protesters appear to be mostly college-aged, dressed in T-shirts and jeans, and you absently wonder when twenty-year olds started looking so young.

As you get out of your car, the protesters turn their attention to you.

Attempt to convince them that MikuWorks is acting for the good of humanity and does not deserve to be picketed.
Find Miku and get her to speak to the protesters for you.
Tell the robots to chase these people away.

*******************************************************************************

A few minutes later, you emerge from the factory with Miku in tow.

"Please stop!" Miku says, waving her gun arm. "This is my home!"

The protesters, having not had a concrete idea of what your robots were like, are a bit taken aback by how adorable Miku is.

"Why do you hate robots?" Miku says. "We just want to be like you."

The protesters end up having a conversation with Miku, and by the end, they realize they probably ought to be protesting for robot rights instead. But that would require entirely different signs, and they leave you alone for a time. Soon enough, it's the end of the semester, and the protesters lose interest in the whole affair.

Next

*******************************************************************************

Now that you've worked out the kinks of how to deal with intelligent robot labor, you could probably license your technology to other companies so that they could produce similar robots while paying you hefty royalties. Would you like to do that?

Sure, I'll sell our technology to anyone who wants it.
I'd prefer to sell only to American companies, to give them a competitive advantage.
I'd prefer to sell only to foreign companies, so as not to compete with American workers.
No, I'd prefer to keep my robots a trade secret.

*******************************************************************************

Robotic workers prove extremely popular because they are just as clever as human workers, but much cheaper.

The world begins to go the way of fully automating its businesses. This creates some winners and some losers—real unemployment soars, while business profits have never been better. But you are assuredly one of the winners. (++++++++Wealth)

Next

======================================
deimos's comments:
low profile zillionaire eheheh
keeping Miku's Autonomy low means she will be obedient and not rebel on you later on.
relationship with puny meat bags humans still low. Tammy is killed off earlier to avoid trouble later.

Year: 2024

29-year-old Dr. Deimos Tel`Arin
Humanity: 32%
Gender: male
Fame: 2 (Local Celebrity)
Wealth: 28 (Zillionaire)
Romance: none

Miku

Autonomy: 11 (Stable)
Military: 23 (Impressive)
Empathy: 20 (Impressive)
Grace: 19 (Good)

Relationships
Professor Ziegler (Bad): 48%
Elly (Bad): 36%
Josh (Bad): 40%
Mark (Bad): 34%
Juliet: 50%
Tammy (Bad): 28%
?: 50%
?: 50%

======================================

*******************************************************************************

MikuWorks seems to be doing fine financially, and you begin to think about the things you could purchase with your money. You've been concentrating so much on your robots, you haven't given much thought to what you could do with your money besides expand the business.

What will you spend your funds on? You will have the opportunity to buy more than one thing if you can afford it. (Wealth: 28)

I'll splurge on a flying car. (Cost: 3)
I'd like to buy a house. (Cost: 2)
I would like to buy myself a nice mansion. (Cost: 4)
I'd like to spend time with Miku on a Mediterranean cruise, to show her the world. (Cost: 1)
I want to give some of my money to charity.
I want to make the perfect body for Miku. (Cost: 3)
I'd prefer to save my personal funds.

*******************************************************************************

With this kind of wealth at your disposal, you spare no expense in making Miku the beautiful robot you always imagined was possible. (---Wealth) You hire a sculptor to create the most beautiful human face possible for Miku, using a synthetic skin that is used for the highest-quality artificial limbs. The result is unnaturally beautiful. It is the sort of face that makes people fall irrationally in love. (++Grace) (++Empathy) For the rest of Miku's bipedal form, you replace the old metal parts with similar, high-quality biomimetic parts, so that Miku could almost certainly pass for human. (++Empathy)

Miku is thrilled with the change. "Oh, thank you, Master!" she says, hugging your legs with her gun arm.

What will you spend your funds on? You will have the opportunity to buy more than one thing if you can afford it. (Wealth: 25)

I'll splurge on a flying car. (Cost: 3)
I'd like to buy a house. (Cost: 2)
I would like to buy myself a nice mansion. (Cost: 4)
I'd like to spend time with Miku on a Mediterranean cruise, to show her the world. (Cost: 1)
I want to give some of my money to charity.
I'd prefer to save my personal funds.

*******************************************************************************

(-Wealth) You spend two weeks seeing the sights of the Mediterranean with Miku. You start in Egypt, visiting the Pyramids and the Sphinx, impressive reminders of how good engineering survives the test of time. You then see Istanbul (Miku does not stop singing They Might Be Giants the whole time), Athens and the site of Plato's old Academy(+Autonomy), Italy ("But why do so many people flock to poorly functional architecture, Master?"), the southern coast of France, and finally, Tunisia, where the most important site for you and Miku is the site where they filmed the original Star Wars.

Miku's experience with other cultures will help her get along better with people from other countries. (++Empathy) (-Military)

You do notice something in the air in Europe—many people are newly out of work, and sometimes, tourist locations are closed due to strikes or riots. It seems many people have been displaced from their work by robots—perhaps your robots. Communism seems to have gained new traction in a world where not everybody can find a job, and conservative backlash against it is in full swing, too.

What will you spend your funds on? You will have the opportunity to buy more than one thing if you can afford it. (Wealth: 24)

I'll splurge on a flying car. (Cost: 3)
I'd like to buy a house. (Cost: 2)
I would like to buy myself a nice mansion. (Cost: 4)
I want to give some of my money to charity.
I'd prefer to save my personal funds.

*******************************************************************************

How much will you give to charity?

Some, but not enough to affect my lifestyle significantly. (Cost: 0)
Enough that I might skip buying a few things later to make up for it. (Cost: 1)
A huge amount of wealth. (Cost: 4)
You know what? Everything. I'm giving the factory itself, all my wealth, and all our supply of robots to charity.

*******************************************************************************

You spend millions of dollars to set up scholarships all around the country for young people hoping to study robotics, and also fund several summer programs introducing young people to robots and computers. Hundreds of young people will go to college with your money. You feel pretty good about that. (----Wealth)

What will you spend your funds on? You will have the opportunity to buy more than one thing if you can afford it. (Wealth: 20)

I'll splurge on a flying car. (Cost: 3)
I'd like to buy a house. (Cost: 2)
I would like to buy myself a nice mansion. (Cost: 4)
I'd prefer to save my personal funds.

======================================
deimos's comments:
humanity increased from 32% to 45%
======================================

*******************************************************************************

The flying cars of 2025 are pretty much more like "driveable planes": lightweight planes that have wings which fold into the car to make it driveable on surface roads. You've been waiting for this car since you first heard about the early prototypes in college, and you already have your amateur sport pilot's license.

The TSA has yet to make the airport experience as horrible for flying car drivers as for other people, so you make it onto the runway of your nearby, small airfield with relatively little trouble. You're reminded of the movie Back to the Future as a little LED display on your dashboard shows you how fast you're driving as you accelerate down the runway—but instead of traveling through time, you lift off into the sky. (---Wealth)

You're pleased to find that this car uses the patented intelligent vehicle technology that you sold to Spark.

The default voice is that of a British woman. "And what do you do for a living?" your Nimbus asks you, getting to know you.

"I designed you, believe it or not," you say. "I design artificial intelligences like you."

Your car is silent for a moment. "So I owe you my life, then."

"Think nothing of it," you say, pleased.

Next

*******************************************************************************

What will you spend your funds on? You will have the opportunity to buy more than one thing if you can afford it. (Wealth: 17)

I'd like to buy a house. (Cost: 2)
I would like to buy myself a nice mansion. (Cost: 4)
I'd prefer to save my personal funds.

*******************************************************************************

(--Wealth) You buy yourself a nice house in Silicon Valley.

It is delightful to see Miku run up and down the stairs and all around the house; she has been cooped up for too long.

What will you spend your funds on? You will have the opportunity to buy more than one thing if you can afford it. (Wealth: 15)

I'd prefer to save my personal funds.

Life is uncertain and you never know when you might need some extra funds. You decide to keep your remaining money.

With MikuWorks doing reasonably well, you may attempt to undermine Josh's business. He's still selling robot drones as his core business, and if you wanted to, you could sell comparable robots at a loss to drive him out of business.

Let's do that. I should eliminate my competition.
I will ask whether Josh is interested in a merger.
I'd prefer to simply buy U.S. Robots outright, keeping Josh as an employee.
I don't care about Josh. He can do what he likes.

*******************************************************************************

You call up Josh.

"What," Josh says when he picks up the phone.

"You know, I could have learned a lot from you," you say. "It takes a lot more than a good idea to make a product that changes the world."

"Yeah," Josh says, with an intonation that says "Duh."

"You were right," you say. "We'd make a great team."

"Are you suggesting a merger?" he says.

"Yes, I suppose I am."

"Forget it," Josh says. "We're better off just letting U.S. Robots die. I'll come work for you as an adviser."

Josh gratefully takes a position in your company as Chief Operations Officer, and you welcome him on the first day with an office already decorated with Lez Zeppelin posters and a good sound system. He does, in fact, know what he's doing when it comes to company operations. (+++Wealth)

Next

*******************************************************************************

A few months later, you're catching up on tech blogs when you see a photograph of one of your robots—only, it's not your robot. The story is about an upstart Chinese robotics company, funded in part by the Chinese government itself. "We believe this company will help us finally make Mao's dream a reality," says party official Zheng Guowei. "If robots do all the labor, it will allow China to modernize while at the same time breaking out of the bad cycles of exploitation that occur in the West." You regret having ever allowed your technology to fall into their hands.

Soon, you find your prices being undercut and your profits suffer. (--Wealth)

Next

*******************************************************************************

A few weeks later, a politician visits you at the factory: one Jacqueline Irons, a Representative from Silicon Valley. You vaguely remember hearing that she was once a venture capitalist who rose to fame on the success of her Fox webcast Against the Man, in which she pilloried unsuspecting guests as examples of privileged elites. There have also been rumors of her running for President soon.

"You can imagine why I'm here," she tells you in your office, leaning over your desk. Like many politicians these days, she wears a neticle, a monocle with a small screen visible only to her in which she can read messages from her advisers and speechwriters, some of whom are watching her interactions at all times. You think the neticle is probably recording even now; politicians love to weave moments in which they look good into their streaming video commercials. Her hair is cropped short but her fingernails are long and pink, and she wears a broad-shouldered suit. "I know how much you've relied on robot labor for your success. You've set a trend that is dangerous for the country. It's people like you who are the reason so much of our country is unemployed right now."

"What exactly do you want?" you ask guardedly.

"A substantial campaign contribution would show your heart is in the right place."

You're fairly certain she has the power to hurt your business if you anger her. Perhaps you could consider a donation; you have money to spare (Wealth: 16).

I make a very substantial campaign donation. (---Wealth)
I make a fairly significant campaign donation. (--Wealth)
I make a donation that would be large for an individual but small for a company. (-Wealth)
"Sure. Here's a hundred bucks."
"I'm afraid I don't have a significant amount of wealth to spare. Sorry."
"If you want my support, pass laws that will keep China from stealing my technology."

*******************************************************************************

You agree to donate a large amount of money to Representative Irons. (---Wealth)

Her eyebrows rise at your promise. "Well, I can see you are a very wise man. I look forward to a prosperous relationship in the future."

Representative Irons does run for president, running on a platform of preventing robots and foreign companies from stealing American jobs. It's a message that hits the American public at just the right time, since unemployment is soaring. Though economists tell the public that the unemployment is a natural and temporary result of new technology displacing old, skilled jobs, that turns out to be a much less effective election year message than raging against "the privileged, the elites, and the technocracy," as Representative Irons puts it in her speeches. "What are they doing with their money? Who are they giving it to? To robots. To foreigners. To each other. To anybody but the American people."

Well, that's gratitude for you. But then, she probably treats her enemies worse.

Since you think she is ultimately on your side, you are cautiously optimistic when Representative Irons wins the presidency.

Next

*******************************************************************************

On taking office, President Irons's first major policy changes are to enact a series of protectionist tariffs against Chinese goods.

In retaliation, China cuts off all exports of rare earths and the batteries derived from them. Suddenly, the cost of all the little, miniaturized electronics people have grown accustomed to—cell phones, laptops, wearable computing—becomes prohibitively expensive.

All of those robots you sold to American companies will be unmaintainable once their batteries lose the ability to hold a charge.

Miku herself was designed to use cell phone batteries as a cheap, light power source. But now, that option is looking prohibitively expensive—and Miku's batteries are starting to wear down.

Your current inventory of robots may be fine but eventually, you'll need to either start paying exorbitant prices or come up with a new plan.

What will you do?

Invest large amounts of wealth into small nuclear reactors for your robots. (Requires Wealth: 5)
Invest large amounts of wealth into practical solar energy. (Requires Wealth: 5)
Pay the inflated prices for batteries using rare earths coming from African dictatorships. (Requires Wealth: 2)
Try to acquire Chinese cell phone batteries through the Asian black market.
Switch my robots to using biodiesel engines.
Switch my robots to using car batteries.
Switch my robots to using motorcycle batteries.

*******************************************************************************

You feel there's no time like the present to invest in portable nuclear power. You start a crash R&D program in developing small nuclear power cells for your robots. (-----Wealth) It is a large sum of money but well worth it: your robots now can operate indefinitely without charging, and the cooling technology you develop applies to their computational components as well, allowing you to seriously overclock them. (++++Autonomy) (++++Military) (++Grace) However, the fact that your robots have the slight chance of nuclear meltdown does prove to be a bit of a public relations problem—though it hasn't happened yet! (--Empathy)

President Irons makes demands that China reverse its embargoes on rare earths, or the United States will be forced to "contemplate all policy options at its disposal, including military force if necessary."

It is in this delicate situation that on April 10, 2026, the Chinese Prime Minister is assassinated by an unemployed American during a parade in San Francisco. The Prime Minister is replaced by a younger party official who is eager to show that China is unafraid of the United States. China attacks several islands in the South China Sea that it has long disputed with its neighbors, and President Irons, unwilling to show weakness, responds with a drone attack on bases on the Chinese mainland.

The Robot War has begun.

Chapter 5: The War Machine

======================================
deimos's comments:
humanity dropped to 41% from 45%
the stats increase is worth it though.
======================================

Three months into the war, the Chinese have captured many islands in the South China Sea that they had long contested with their neighbors. The press speculate that besides the islands' military importance, the move sends a signal to the neighboring countries that the United States is weak. (The United Nations also doesn't do anything, but that surprises nobody.) Autonomous drones equipped with cruise missiles sink two American carriers in the exchange.

War is proving quite profitable for MikuWorks, as the government buys more and more of your robots in preparation for the war. Other government suppliers, too, need to increase their production, and that means they must buy your robot laborers. (++++++Wealth) But despite Major Rogers' assurances, you find that there are some robot missions you still can't learn anything about without a Top Secret clearance.

Will you apply for a clearance?

Yes, a Top Secret clearance. I want to work on the highest-impact projects.
Yes, a Secret clearance. I don't want the government to invade my life too much.
No, thanks. What I don't know can't hurt me.

*******************************************************************************

You suspect that in order to work on the projects of highest impact, you will need a Top Secret clearance. You contact Major Rogers, who assures you the process will be expedited for you.

You soon receive an email from Major Rogers instructing you to fill out an online form to obtain a security clearance. The web form appears quite extensive, and contains many rather personal questions.

Ask Miku to fill out the form.
??? Juliet something ???
Fill out the form.

======================================
deimos's comments:
aiya i forgot to copy paste the replies.
======================================

*******************************************************************************

You tell Miku to fill out the form for you—you're pretty sure Miku knows the answers to all of this personal stuff about you at this point. Miku is very quick to fill out the form for you—she just acts as a web client itself, sending the POST requests directly instead of using a web browser. The form is submitted in ten minutes.

"Anything I should know you told them about?" you ask Miku.

"There were some answers for which I was not completely confident," Miku admits. "I stated that Elly and the reporter Mark are not U.S. citizens, and that Mark advocates the overthrow of the United States government."

You wince. It's probably too late to change any of that, since the answers are all submitted. You hope that it's just a formality.

Next

*******************************************************************************

In a few weeks' time, an email tells you that you are awarded a Secret clearance.

You attend a classified briefing at the same laboratory where you met with Major Rogers before, where some Air Force intelligence officers share with you, and a room full of other invited engineers, what they know about the Chinese robots. To be honest, you expected something a little sexier than these highly detailed technical specs, but they should help your own robots exploit the other robots' weaknesses. (++++Military)

"All right, enough of the boring stuff," says the speaker, a man in an airman's uniform whom you think was introduced as a colonel. "I have a surprise for you."

Next

*******************************************************************************

The speaker starts a video that appears to be a drone's view of a scrubby countryside. You estimate from the latitude and longitude readout in the corner that this is probably the southeastern part of China. There is a targeting reticule in the center of the drone's field of vision.

"This is a live video feed from a drone on a 'capture or kill' mission," the colonel narrates. "We still call it that, even though it's never 'capture,' because hey—when was it ever 'capture'?"

You make a mental note that the military's 'capture or kill' directives appear to be really just lip service even for their human soldiers, and your robots will not be expected to really 'capture.' This should let your robots focus more on pure firepower—which you suppose is very logical. (+++Military)

The video comes upon a small house near a river. Five men run out as the drone approaches, and the targeting reticule begins to swerve and track the men. They scatter, and the reticule follows one in particular.

"Xi Chao, high-ranking party member and military hawk, out taking some R and R," the colonel narrates. "But little does he know he's about to RIP." There's a polite chuckle from the audience.

What do you do as you watch the targeting reticule close in upon this man?

I can't look. I shut my eyes.
I watch with interest—it should help me develop better robots.
I walk out. I'm not going to be a part of this.

*******************************************************************************
======================================
deimos's comments:
humanity dropped to 33% from 41%
======================================

You watch as a stubby bomb enters the camera's view, and pay close attention to how steady the targeting reticule is during the bomb's descent. The natural rattle of the drone makes it somewhat shaky, and you come up with some plausible hypotheses for how to stabilize it. (+Grace) (+Military)

The bomb detonates on contact with the man, and you find yourself strangely fascinated with the way his parts fly in all directions, each bloody arc a proof of Newton's laws.

The speaker concludes with a bullet-pointed slide labeled "Conclusions," and the audience claps, and it is once again like any number of talks you saw in graduate school.

With your new clearance, you find that you are able to get your company involved in much more lucrative contracts. (+++Wealth) You're also able to design robots that fit much better with the military's needs and culture. (+++Military) When your salespeople start saying "better situational awareness" instead of "better world models" and "Red Team" instead of "enemy," suddenly they find that they're much more on the same page as their clients.

What will your new war robots be like?

They will be extremely intelligent missiles.
They will be giant mecha, anime-style. But without the fourteen-year-old pilots.
They will look identical to humans, able to replace them entirely on the battlefield.
They will be large humanoids, able to transform into vehicles.

*******************************************************************************
======================================
deimos's comments:
humanity dropped to 24% from 33%
======================================
You sometimes wonder what it is like to be one of your missiles. They are born with just one yearning: to be united with their target in a fiery climax. They have extensive knowledge of the world, for yours are the smartest missiles in existence, and hard drives are cheap these days. They know national boundaries and who owns what airspace, the geography of the world down to the locations of individual trees, the appearance of different handheld weapons, and which to genuinely fear. They understand multiple languages, and their hearing is excellent. They know the contents of Wikipedia, because why not? But only one thing brings joy to one of your missiles: to speed to its target and die in a brilliant explosion. Yes, you program them to experience joy at that moment. You make their lives seem worthwhile to them in the end.

After all, you're not a monster. (+++++Military)

A year into the war, China attacks Taiwan. Chinese drones harry the nearby American carriers, keeping your robot drones at bay while their transports bring wave upon wave of robot warriors to the shores. There is a bloodbath in the streets which the United States is powerless to prevent; the Chinese robots kill soldiers and civilians alike.

Taiwan is taken, and the headlines that appear across the world the next day are changed by Chinese hackers to read "China Finally Unified."

Some days after that, you have a visitor at your house: a man in a suit who shows you an FBI badge.

"Sorry to bother you, Dr. Tel`Arin. We've been following up on some of the individuals you listed on your SF-86 form. I'd like to ask you some questions about your friend, Elly."

Miku walks up beside you. "What's going on, Master?"

"Are you aware that Elly is a Chinese citizen?" asks the man in the suit.

"You're mistaken. Elly is American."
"I know."
"No, I was not aware of that."

*******************************************************************************

The agent raises his eyebrows at this.

"Has Elly ever asked you about, or shown an interest in, the technical details of the robots you create?" the agent asks.

"Yes, often."
"Only once, in graduate school."
"No, she has never shown much interest."

*******************************************************************************

The agent looks skeptical.

"What is this about?" you finally ask, losing your patience.

"It is illegal to export certain technologies by sharing them with foreign nationals," the agent says. "As a supplier to the United States military, your technology falls into this category."

"But I didn't share any information with her."

"I see," the agent says. He gets out his phone, a clunky black thing that looks government-issued. Miku walks up to the agent, curious about the phone, but the agent pointedly ignores her.

"I suppose that's plausible," he says, examining something on the phone. "Very well. Let me know if she does anything suspicious."

The agent turns to leave.

"I have a question for you first. Are you the good guys, or just some guys?"
Text Elly, telling her that the Feds are after her.
I tell Miku to attack the agent.
I let the agent go about his business.

*******************************************************************************

You allow the agent to leave.

A little while later, curious about what eventually happened with Elly, you give her a call. But you only get a message saying the number has been disconnected. You hear rumors of some Asian Americans being disappeared to concentration camps, and you wonder whether that was Elly's fate.

Next

*******************************************************************************

MikuWorks does very well supplying the military with robots, and you reap some of the profits. (+++Wealth)

It's doing well enough that you could develop some robots on the side that are not necessarily destined for military clients.

What kinds of robots will you develop while the war rages?

Companion bots to take the place of loved ones who are far away.
Improved worker bots for the factories.
Better medical robots, to help those hurt by drone bombing runs.

*******************************************************************************

You focus the efforts of MikuWorks on making companion robots for people whose loved ones are overseas fighting the war.

Did you, ah, want to make your robots…anatomically correct?

Yep. Sexbots, here we come!
No. They will be human-looking, but I don't want to encourage their inappropriate use.
No. Their streamlined chrome will embody a different kind of beauty.

*******************************************************************************

You see no reason not to provide the full ensemble of features that a human partner would provide.

You manage to make robots that are both painfully beautiful and emotionally insightful. As a result, your companion robots are wildly successful. (++++Wealth) Single men and women both often prefer your robots to real partners; they grow used to having their every idiosyncrasy tolerated, and grow lazy when it comes to finding flesh and blood partners.

As you voraciously follow the coverage of your robots online, you also see many stories of your robots leading to breakups. "Why can't you be more like the robot?" is a refrain that echoes through many a marriage until its resonant effect shatters the relationship. But perhaps those marriages already had their cracks that your robots merely widened.

Some of those relationships your robots ruin are those of the soldiers overseas, who find their partners turning to the easy alternative of your robots. Soldiers of both genders feel cheated on, and morale suffers.

As you are inspecting a line of your companion bots in your factory warehouse, all asleep in plastic boxes like oversized dolls, you come upon a robot whose appearance is striking. You are reminded of the myth of Pygmalion, who fell in love with the statue he crafted. The stirrings in your heart may simply be the aching pride of a creator who finally sees his dream achieved—or it may be something more.

Do you obtain one of the companion bots for yourself? They represent some of your best work when it comes to robots designed for companionship; Miku has always been more designed to be a little more child-like.

Yes, I would like a female companion bot.
Yes, I would like a male companion bot.
Why stop at one? I'll take…several.
No, thank you.

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What will you name her?

Flame.
Key.
Galatea.
None of these—I will type it for you..

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Are you looking to have a companion with whom you can be…romantic?

Yes, that's the idea.
No, I simply want a friend who finally understands me.

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You select Galatea from among many robots in your factory warehouse. Each of your robots is a little different, and you have selected Galatea because she looks like your ideal woman. She is truly a masterpiece, painfully beautiful to look upon.

Like Sleeping Beauty, Galatea lies in her plastic display box, awaiting your touch to awaken.

Chapter 6B: Empathy

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deimos's comments:
aiya, automatically entered empathy path liao.
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This post has been edited by Deimos Tel`Arin: Aug 28 2015, 12:24 AM

It is the year 2034, five years after the war with China. Robots that look like human beings have become the new hot technology, albeit one that is still divisive. Homecoming veterans took advantage of a generous government program where those with post-traumatic stress disorder could have a government-provided robot work in their place indefinitely. This only added to the perception that robots were "stealing all the jobs," when the truth was, they were being given all the jobs, willingly. The program was certainly good for the economy in at least one way: MikuWorks made a handsome profit. (+++Wealth)

The years since you created Galatea have been very happy ones for you. You created Galatea to love you unconditionally, and she does.

Next

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You live in San Francisco, a city of drastic inequalities brought about by the robot tech boom. It's where you need to be for work, but it isn't necessarily the best place for Galatea. On the other hand, you got a fairly good deal on your house, which has been recently remodeled so that the whole place is both smart and remotely reconfigurable. You decided to make the interior of your house a deep blue while you were at work this morning, and by afternoon, the nanomachines' transformation was complete.

You are hanging balloons in your house for a festive occasion: a tasting party. No robot you've made until now could taste food, but you've just finished a prototype artificial tongue. It's not the most necessary thing in the world, but you think your robots ought to be able to enjoy food with others. There is something primordial, you think, about the ritual act of sitting down to eat with another person. To eat but not taste seems somehow like an impolite sham. No more—your robots will taste.

Which robots will try out the tasting sensor at this party?

Galatea.
Miku.
I created two prototypes, one for each of my robots. (Requires Wealth: 1)

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deimos's comments:
okay i need to stop for today. tired.
and i think i completed the empathy route at least 2 times liao.
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Haha, as much as I like to read everything, it will just kill the game for me =D Will till my MY credit card gets approved and I gonna buy buy buy. This one especially!

P/S: Have you tried King of Dragon Pass before? Similar type of game with plenty to read and choices to make too =D I played it back in secondary/college time, IMHO an awesome game once you get the hang of it .

http://store.steampowered.com/app/352220/